How do you cope with rising regulatory costs?

Singapore's real estate investment trust (Reit) market is set to consolidate as smaller vehicles merge to cope with rising regulatory costs, according to Cambridge Industrial Trust (CIT). "The wave of consolidation for Singapore Reits is about to begin," Philip Levinson, chief executive officer at Singapore-listed CIT, said. The trust has a market capitalization of S$730.5 million and focuses on industrial real estate assets. Singapore has tightened rules that could raise costs and lower revenues for Reits, making mergers between such trusts the most viable option for them to thrive, Mr Levinson said. Morgan Stanley last year said consolidation in the Singapore REIT market was "unavoidable and necessary" to develop sufficient scale and stock liquidity for individual Reits to effectively compete on a global scale. Since 2002, when they were first started, Singapore Reits ha...